1993 NBA All-Star Game

Result

MVP: Karl Malone & John Stockton (tie)

The Utah Jazz's own John Stockton and Karl Malone shared MVP honors on their home floor.

Box score

West won in overtime. MVP tie: Karl Malone and John Stockton.

Bench (10+ points): Dan Majerle (18), Tim Hardaway (16), Danny Manning (10)

Bench (10+ points): Patrick Ewing (15), Mark Price (19)

Game context

The 1993 All-Star Game was played February 21 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, the Utah Jazz's home arena, and the two Jazz stars themselves stole the show: John Stockton and Karl Malone were named co-MVPs after leading the Western Conference to a 135-132 overtime win in front of 19,459 hometown fans, a rare instance of the award being shared and an even rarer one of both winners playing for the host city's own franchise. The game needed the extra period after Utah's West led just 57-52 at halftime and 86-84 through three quarters, with neither side pulling away in a tightly played fourth quarter (35-33 East) before the West won the overtime period 16-13. The game carried significant career-closing subplots for the Eastern Conference. Michael Jordan, still with the Bulls in the midst of a run toward a third consecutive championship that June, played what would prove to be his final All-Star Game before his first retirement (announced that October); he started alongside Isiah Thomas, who was also making what became his final All-Star appearance as his career wound down with an ailing Detroit team. On the other end of the career-arc spectrum, Orlando's Shaquille O'Neal made his All-Star debut as a 20-year-old rookie, starting at center for the East in his first professional season — an early marker of the dominant career to come. The Eastern starting five that night — Jordan, Thomas, Scottie Pippen, Larry Johnson, and O'Neal — reflected a league in transition between eras, while the West countered with a starting lineup of Clyde Drexler, Stockton, Charles Barkley, Malone, and David Robinson. Injuries also shaped the reserves: Golden State's Mitch Richmond was unable to play and was replaced by Terry Porter, while Chris Mullin's spot went unfilled. Away from the main game, Harold Miner won the Slam Dunk Contest and Mark Price took the Three-Point Shootout during that weekend's associated events. The shared MVP award for Stockton and Malone — teammates who had spent years building the Jazz into a perennial Western Conference power without individual All-Star MVP hardware to show for it — gave Utah basketball fans a signature moment on their own floor, months before the duo would help lead the Jazz to consecutive NBA Finals appearances later in the decade. Utah's Delta Center, then just two years old, gave the Jazz a modern showcase arena for their moment in the spotlight, part of a wave of new NBA buildings opening across the league in the early 1990s. The 19,459 fans in attendance saw two future Hall of Famers who had spent their entire careers together in Utah finally get individual recognition on the league's biggest midseason stage, a fitting reward for a partnership that had already produced years of Western Conference contention without a trip to the Finals.

Sources

• Basketball-Reference — NBA All-Star Game History
• Basketball-Reference — NBA & ABA All-Star Game MVP (Kobe Bryant Trophy)
• Wikipedia — 1993 NBA All-Star Game